The Burden of Eternal Thanks

Tullian's devotional: It Is Finished (Aug 11)
We don't know how to react when we get really good gifts.  When the gift is that good, no response is good enough.  Certainly a plain "thank you" won't cut it....
Many of us Christians spend our lives trying to reciprocate for Jesus's gift to adequately say thank you.  But if we turn a big enough gift into an obligation, we are crushed by it.
Let's acknowledge from the beginning, then, that this is a gift that tips the scales forever.  Let's treat the gift like a child would, with excitement and joy, and go play, remembering that even our most heartfelt gratitude is not commensurate with His life-giving gift --- liberating us from the impossible burden of repayment.

If You're Gonna Reject Christianity, Reject This!

For whatever reason, over the last however many years, the Church has been conveying that the Christian faith is about 'good people getting better.'  So people believe the caricatures out there about Christianity:

• it's about 'good' people getting better
• it really is a 'country club' for saints
• it's really moral-ism first and foremost 
• behaviorism first and foremost
• the whole focus of the Christian faith is 'cleaning up your act'

So... if you are going to 'reject' the Christian faith ...reject the real thing!

Don't reject some fake caricatured version of it ...reject the real thing! ...and when you really come down to it, who would 'reject' a gracious God who comes to save you and me?  That's the true God of the Christian faith.

NOT some angry judge for his people who is waiting to break the legs of people who screw up.  

This is a God who condescends...who comes into the world that He made and was rejected by the people He made, in order to rescue them and save them....that's the real thing.

Tullian - 2/10/13

Toxic Gospel

In Tullian Tchividjian's sermon on Job "The Suffering Gospel|Part 5" he makes a series of exceptional observations. I've boldened the most striking parts:

"[Job's] friends have absolutely no concept of grace... It's all works; 'work hard, do more, try harder, confess sin...' and all that stuff is good... confessing sin, praying, reading [the Bible] ...all of that is good and right, we're exhorted to do that in the Bible. But... ultimate relief does not come our way because of something 'good' we do, that is a theology of 'works' not a theology of 'grace.'"

"And the sad thing is, is their prescription - 'how do you fix what's wrong here Job?' sounds a lot like preaching these days; 'Do more, try harder!' There's a lot of preaching these days, a lot of preaching, and as a result a lot of people inside the church believe that. There is so much moral-ism that comes from so many pulpits... the underlying message... is simply this - 'Do more, try harder.'"

"Even the 'health-wealth-prosperity' preachers who you would never charge with being legalistic because they are 'happy' and 'clappy' and 'silly;' they're just as legalistic as... hardcore fundamentalist... both are equally legalistic, because even though they sound different, and their message appears to be different, undergirding both of their messages there is this: 'Do more, try harder...' [That message] is toxic to the soul and it crowds out the Gospel!"

"... you become the hero of your own story, because if you can do 'it' ...then you'll get the 'good stuff.' And if you can't do it...you won't get the 'good stuff.' It's toxic, toxic to the soul, it's 'Gospel-less.' Whether it comes with a 'smile' or whether it comes with a 'stern look' it doesn't matter, it's the same thing: 'Do more, try harder.' "

"That's [Job's] friends... that's the prescription his friends are offering here. Listen...the difference between a moralistic prescription and the prescription of the Gospel is that the Gospel locates 'restoration' in Jesus's performance for us and not our performance for Him. It's Gospel... big big difference... the Gospel is the determining factor in my relationship with God. It's not my past or my present but Christ's past and His present."

Wow...just, wow! Thank you Tullian for the piercing clarity.

A New Understanding of God's Wrath

Meditating on the concept of 'wrath.'

In Part 4 of "The Suffering Gospel" a sermon on Job, Tullian Tchividjian makes an interesting point:

"Jesus experienced God's dreadful wrath in a way Job never did. Up until the cross Jesus experienced nothing but the Father's unrelenting love, and now on the cross he cries out 'My God My God, Why have you forsaken me.' He is, in that moment, experiencing the Father's unrelenting Wrath, for sinners like you and me. Jesus himself experienced a dreadful withdrawal that was more serious than any withdrawal you will experience or that Job experienced."

In my mind I picture God's wrath as an act of aggression, kind of like a "God-slap." Would most agree? Is that how most people view God's wrath?

No matter His purpose, whether it be for discipline or punishment or judgement or whatever...His wrath is violent. But portraying wrath as an act of 'aggression,' begs the question; "if God is 'good' why does He allow 'bad' things to happen?"

So, knowing that God is 'good' and reflecting on what Tullian said, I get a glimpse why this view... my view... the world's view of God's wrath might be misguided.

Perhaps God's wrath is not something 'aggressive' but 'passive.'

When I look around, the general state of my natural surrounding appears 'safe.' But, it's entirely possible that I am surrounded by a sea of destruction, waiting to wreck me, and I am oblivious to it only because God's protection is holding it at bay.

Is there a flood-gate that only His 'goodness' is keeping closed. I wonder if God's momentary withdrawal is like opening the door a crack, so that wrath can pour out.

He will never abandon us, and His withdrawal is nothing like the abandonment that Jesus experienced in my place.

God uses his slight withdrawal as a tool, a tempered wrath, just enough as is necessary, for discipline or growth.

And although God's withdrawal is painful, and the wrath is painful, it's not a 'bad' thing, It's a necessary reminder of how good God is and how much I need His protection. Even when I unwittingly withdraw from Him.

It's a fair warning, a taste of total abandonment that is 'hell'